Fatal Instinct
by DivinitySickness
Summary: [Cyberchase] When Buzz and Delete are brutally murdered, the Cyberquad must find out who did it before it's too late...


Title: Fatal Instinct Rating: R (extreme horror, gore, robotic and graphic violence) Summary: When Buzz, Hacker and Delete are brutally murdered and the culprit disappears without a trace, the Cybersquad must find out who the murderer is before it gets to its next victim...  
  
FATAL INSTINCT  
  
By Final Fantasy  
  
This story has no official link to Cyberchase, but is copyrighted to the above author, which includes all her ideas, if you don't mind. If you dare to break this copyright by either plagiarizing or stealing, action will be taken. You have been warned.  
  
The Grim Wreaker, Northern Frontier, 9:18 a.m  
  
It had all started as a normal morning in the Grim Wreaker. Hacker was in his normal bad mood, due to the effects of the previous (failed) mission. Buzz was downing his third cup of coffee, and Delete was his normal bubbly self. However, the boss had plans for the day.  
  
"Now, I want you two duncebuckets to stay here!" snapped Hacker, climbing into their only coupe. "If I come back and find that you've messed up the ship...well, I'll leave it to your imaginations to come up with a punishment. That is, if you two dim-bulbs have any imagination." He snickered to himself, while Buzz forced a grin and tried to hide his clenched fists behind his back. Delete merely looked confused.  
  
"Where're you goin', boss?" Buzz asked in a strained voice, trying to keep his temper under control. He could imagine himself running forwards and shutting Hacker's head in the door of the coupe...but instead he concentrated on his boss' answer.  
  
"To cybersite Nowhere, if you don't mind," snarled Hacker. "I have to do a bit of...trading..." With that, he slammed the door of the coupe and lifted off.  
  
Buzz shrugged and turned back to Delete, pushing his younger brother in the back to get him moving. "Come on, come on," he grumbled. "I want to get back to my coffee sometime, 'ya know." Delete looked over his shoulder at him, and then walked faster.  
  
As they went back into the main control room, Delete stopped. "What are we going to do while the boss is gone, Buzzy?" he asked Buzz, who sat down and gulped down the last of the coffee. "Oh, 'dis is just great," he muttered. "My coffee's cold." He looked up grumpily when Delete waved a hand in front of his face. "What?"  
  
The younger android repeated his question, at which Buzz shrugged. "How should I know?" he snapped. "Surely you can entertain yourself." Delete, a frightened look on his face, nodded sadly and trudged out of the room and down the hallway. "He never wants to play with me anymore," he muttered as he turned the corner.  
  
***  
  
Buzz pushed his coffee cup away, and reached under the table for his morning box of donuts. Unfortunately, there was nothing there. Hopping off his chair, he went under the table and looked around. Nothing. "'Dis day is gettin' better and better," he muttered as he went over to the shelf and started searching for his emergency stash, throwing folders and books onto the floor. Still nothing. He scratched his antenna and scanned the room, until finally it clicked into his mind.  
  
"Delete," he muttered. His brother was also partial to a donut or two, and he liked to nick them from Buzz, considering he couldn't get them anywhere else. Running for the doorway, accidentally knocking his coffee cup off the table and onto the floor, shattering it into pieces, the short robot sped down the hallway, panting and clutching his side due to lack of exercise.  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile Delete was sitting on his bed, sulking. He's no fun anymore, always grumpy, he thought to himself. Like the boss. I'm pretty much sick of it. Crossing his legs and putting his elbows on his knees, he sighed deeply. Now, what is there I can play with? His eye caught the picture of George, his rabbit, on his bedside table. Nope. You can't exactly have a conversation with an animal. His childish mind worked slowly as he looked around his room for something to do. A couple of bolts lay on the floor, and he picked them up, fiddling with them while he thought.  
  
His eyes suddenly perceived a photo, lying halfway under Buzz's bed, rather crumpled and dusty. Getting off his unmade bed and picking it up, Delete saw that it was a photo of him, Buzz and Digit, from when they had all been good friends and brothers...I'm sure that if Digit was here, he would have played with me, Delete thought sadly. I wonder why Buzz had this under his bed?  
  
Suddenly, there was the sound of footsteps in the hallway outside his room, and at this he dropped the photo like a hot potato.  
  
"Buzzy?" he called hopefully, but there was no answer. Then again, the footsteps weren't like his brother's at all; they were slow but purposeful, almost stealthy. "Buzz?" he yelled again, voice shaking slightly. "This isn't funny, stop it!" But the footsteps never ceased in their stride.  
  
A black-gloved hand suddenly thrust itself into the room, and flicked the light switch so that it was now flooded in darkness. The only source of light came from the doorway, and Delete, now standing beside his bed, couldn't even tell what shape the silhouette of the person was as they stepped into the room, swathed in a fluttering, black cloak, a bluish light radiating from where its chest was, supposedly.  
  
"Who – are you?" Delete whimpered, backing away until he was flat against the wall. This time, the mysterious figure answered, in a quiet, raspy voice that was deathly cold, like a deep winters' night, and sounded like a snake.  
  
"I am...sss-someone you didn't expect..."  
  
It took a step forward, and Delete gave a small, choking sound. "W-what do you want?"  
  
The person took another step, and from what he could tell from its voice, Delete would have said it was smiling.  
  
"Don't you know?"  
  
The sound of a blade being drawn echoed around the room with a hiss. The android would've screamed, only now he found that he couldn't talk, let alone make any sound intelligible to human – or robot – ears. Suddenly, he felt its breath on his neck as he turned, scrabbling at the wall, leaving deep scratches as he tried to escape.  
  
Then he felt the blade entering his back and coming out of his stomach, and choked, gagging on metallic-tasting blood as he tried to make a sound – any sound – so that someone, anyone, would hear him and save him!  
  
But no-one came.  
  
The wound burned like fire as the sword twisted in him and was thrust out, letting him sink down the wall, leaving a long, sticky trail of black-red blood. He felt a hand on the wound, a death-cold hand, that seared the fatal wound like red-hot poker. It then drew away and there was a slurping noise. It sounded absolutely disgusting.  
  
"Yessss..." the mysterious figure hissed, drawing closer. "Your blood feels good on my tongue..."  
  
Delete slowly turned over on his back, and gasped in pain when the sword entered him again, this time through his chest. He clutched it with both his hands, and sputtered for air, feeling the blood start to cascade over his hands and down his shirt. The pain intensified, as his breathing became less, and his pulse dropped drastically, sucking life from him...the sword was pulled out and then, then he felt pain no more, even though he saw, through blurry vision, the deadly blade hacking at him...he struggled to catch a glimpse of his attacker, but never got the chance.  
  
Drawing a deep, shuddery breath, he fell limp, blackness overtaking him at last.  
  
***  
  
Buzz had run out of breath not far from the main control room, and was walking along, trying to regain his strength. He recovered soon afterwards, and then entered Delete's room, which, for some reason, was dark. Yet he thought that Delete must be in here...maybe he was just playing a joke on him. As he strode into the room, he flicked on the light switch, calling his brother's name.  
  
"Dele – GAH!" The short robot leapt backwards as he spotted a body slumped against the wall of the room in a bile-bringing position, still as death itself.  
  
Gathering his courage, he closed his eyes and stepped forwards, slowly and steadily, until the gruesome cadaver was at his feet. Upon taking a deep breath and opening his eyes, he at once saw who it was.  
  
Delete...  
  
Letting out a cry of disgust and fear, he set his eyes upon the carnage that faced him.  
  
The younger android had both a fatal chest and stomach wound, still emptying his lifeblood out of his body and staining his normally clean shirt. One of his arms was severed at the elbow, one of his antenna was hanging by a wire, sparking dangerously, and he had a look of great horror on his face. His mouth was wide open as if he were screaming, leaking blood onto the floor with a steady drip-drip-drip, tongue flopping out, also dripping blood, and his eyes were open and as blank and as empty as the windows of a deserted house. They had gone deep black.  
  
Buzz knew what that meant, but he didn't want to believe it, and instead reached a shaking hand towards Delete's wrist, feeling for a pulse. Any pulse.  
  
There was none.  
  
Though he frantically checked his brother's neck, there was still no sign of life. Not a movement. Not a breath.  
  
Letting out a howl of anguish, he clutched the sides of his head and stared wildly at his brother's corpse.  
  
Oh God, please...he thought, digging his fingers into his head until they hurt. Not Delete. He didn't do anything to deserve this...he was too young to die...  
  
Flipping the body over with his trembling hand, he spotted another disgusting wound in his back...but there was also a message, carved into the back of his head, drops of blood beading the letters. It looked as if it had been cut by some sort of sharp weapon – a knife maybe, or a sword.  
  
Revenge is sweet...  
  
It was signed with a single letter – a strange curly S. Closing his eyes tight, Buzz dropped to his knees and put his face in his hands, shaking with nausea and anger.  
  
A soft noise right behind him made him leap to his feet and whirl around, fists clenched, but his scream of fury was cut off by a long blade, shining with red-black, robotic blood, coming to swing just a few centimetres from his head. A shadowy figure, clothed in a night-black cloak that hid its face from view but was untied at the torso, stepped forward from the doorway. It dropped to one knee and struck again, missing Buzz once more.  
  
One thing that Buzz noticed was this: when you were in a really bad situation, like if someone was trying to murder you, you seemed to observe every single detail of the environment and people around you. He spotted Delete's picture of Inez, splattered grotesquely in his brother's blood. He saw the younger android's unmade, messy bed. He glimpsed a faint, aqua-blue glow emanating from where he suspected his attacker's chest was located. But one thing, a thing that shocked him to his core, was the photo, lying right in the middle of the shiny floor, which was slippery with blood.  
  
It depicted Digit, and was covered in dust. The cybird was laughing, a huge grin on his face...and behind him, on one knee, with an arm draped around his purple shoulder, was Delete. He was also smiling, that giddy, happy smile that he had known for so long and would be forever lost, if only in body, than in memory or spirit. The stocky android felt a wave of sadness rise up from within him, because on Digit's other side, he was standing there, a small smile on his face, arms folded and leaning against the cybird. Then that sadness disappeared, for what he saw was most curious.  
  
A long, deep scratch inflicted on the photo ran across all of their faces, as if some sick-minded creature had gouged them; at this the eldest brother suddenly remembered that someone was trying to injure him, maybe even murder him like Delete had so obviously been. Buzz dared once more to look up at the tall creature, and swallowed, his heart labouring with terror, his throat gone suddenly dry. He began to back away, but it was too late. With a hiss, the creature was upon him, gleaming blade raised high above its head. It swung for the third time, and the glittering blade came whistling down to embed itself in Buzz's side.  
  
He shrieked in agony, and tried to escape, but before he could move, the attacker wrenched the sword sideways, and sliced him in half. Immediately, his awareness was blown out like a flickering candle, and his spirit fled into the dark depths of death.  
  
***  
  
Upon returning to the silent Wreaker, quite pleased with himself about his so-called trading, Hacker noticed something unusual about his ship.  
  
"What is that?" he asked himself, as he strode up the platform. "Oh, yes. That's quiet..." Throwing his head back, the cyborg strutted into the main controls and halted, puzzled and not a little angry. Everything was working fine and all the lights were on, but what irritated him most was that the room was an absolute mess.  
  
What he presumed was once a coffee cup was shattered in white pieces on the floor; drops of coffee stained the ground rust-colored, making it look like dried blood. At least, that was what it would've looked like to the sickest of minds. Not Hacker's.  
  
Meanwhile, papers were strewn around the normally neat room, making it look like a whirlwind had materialized out of thin air and blown them into that mess. Books, top-secret folders, everything were scattered on the table and the linoleum, pages ripped and torn from misuse by somebody...At this sight, Hacker ground his teeth in fury and started walking again, picking his way through the debris to the hallway.  
  
"Buzz!" he shouted angrily, shaking in fury at his orders being ignored. "Delete!"  
  
When no-one answered, Hacker became even more aggravated. "What those duncebuckets are playing at, I don't know, but it is certainly not funny. It'll cost them a peaceful night, anyways," the green man muttered through clenched teeth and suppressed anger, as he strode down the eerily silent hallway, towards where Buzz and Delete's room was located. He imagined whipping them with his prized electric ox-snake whip until they screamed with agony and were cowed and beaten, a vision overtook his sight, of them kneeling and begging for their atonement before him, robotic blood blossoming onto to the floor from their freshly-cut wounds...  
  
His rather grotesque vision was rudely interrupted when he heard the soft SHHWINNG of a blade being unsheathed from its scabbard; or so he guessed, anyway. As he took in a deep breath, and stepped forward, trying to project a look of bravery, he heard soft footsteps coming quickly towards him, from behind. Looking back, however, he could see nothing, and quickened his pace, for the first time in his life feeling nervous and maybe a little scared. Unfortunately for him, the footsteps also picked up their pace, echoing in the eerie hallway.  
  
Hacker began to run down the hallway; the door of Delete's and Buzz's room was coming closer and closer; but behind him the footsteps continued in their speeding up, and as he stepped into the darkened room, slightly panting for breath, his vision adjusted to the darkness of the room and he sighted the gruesome sight of death. Mistakenly forgetting the footsteps completely.  
  
At first glance he couldn't quite tell who had been sliced in half; it was a little hard to see with all the robotic organs and jet-black blood splattering the floor in a disgusting pattern. Then he managed to discern, through oddly hazy vision, Buzz's top half lying, upper limbs askew, on Delete's bed, robotic organs displayed for all to see. He couldn't even see what expression his face had; it was beaten to a bloody pulp, as if he had been hit with something slightly rounded and metal several times. Sparks flew from the area where his bottom half had somehow been horribly disconnected from his top half, falling to extinguish on the floor below.  
  
Hacker barely flinched when he stepped closer and prodded the still body with a green finger; only a twitch showed in his face as he turned to Delete, who was still lying the way he had been when he was killed beforehand.  
  
Who could it have been? Hacker thought to himself, eyes narrowing, shaking as he almost slipped on Buzz's bloody loops of intestine. Who would want to murder my henchmen like this? Not that it's a great loss, the stupid duncebuckets, but...  
  
Once again, the SWISSHHH of a blade hurtling through the air echoed in the hallway, and in a split second Hacker cursed out loud, spinning around to face the source.  
  
He had forgotten the footsteps.  
  
***  
  
"WHAT?" Digit sounded incredulous. "The Hacker is DEAD?"  
  
Dr Marbles nodded. "Apparently he – along with Delete and Buzz – was found stabbed to death in the Grim Wreaker." He sighed unhappily. "I can't help but be a little worried at this, Digit. Whoever committed the crime is still at large, and a great threat to Cyberspace."  
  
Digit looked a little concerned, himself. "You mean, they don't know who did it?" The Doc shook his head. "Not that I have been informed of. Absolutely no evidence has been found – except for this." He held up a small, rectangular piece of paper, ripped in some places. The cyboid's eyes widened at the sight as he took the paper out of Dr Marble's hand.  
  
"Do you know what this is?"  
  
The Doc shook his head again; Digit decided to explain. "This is a photo of Buzz, Delete and me before I left the Hacker. How the attacker came to have it, I have no idea, but –"Dr Marbles cut him off. "I'm going to portal the children over here."  
  
Half an hour later, the rest of the Cybersquad were standing in Motherboard's main control room. Dr Marbles glanced at each of them in turn, and pulled out a white envelope, emptying the contents onto a nearby desk.  
  
It was a set of photos. Inez took them and began shuffling through them, letting out a cry of horror as she came to the more gruesome ones. She held up one of Hacker's body, his eyes wide and staring, wig askew and several stab marks in his chest. Jackie covered her mouth and tried to block the image out of her brain. Ew, ew, ew... she thought desperately.  
  
The next photos Inez held up were of the two halves of Buzz. All that were present looked rather nauseous upon seeing those particular pictures; they weren't exactly pleasant viewing.  
  
With a gasp, Inez let the photos fall to the floor as she came to the most horrifying one of all; it was one taken of Delete's cadaver. Jackie, Matt, Digit and Dr Marbles all looked alarmed as they watched Inez back away, white as a sheet. She extended a shaking hand to the single photo amongst the others, lying on the clean linoleum.  
  
Jackie walked over and picked it up, holding it between forefinger and thumb as if it were something disgusting. In a way, it was. The photo was of Delete's face; it was almost terrifying to see those faded, empty eyes. His mouth was open, blood caught in mid-drip. After staring at the horrific picture for a couple of minutes, it began to look as if he were screaming.  
  
Inez had one hand partly obscuring her face; one hand was on her chest, the other was clenched at her side, knuckles white and muscles tensed. Matt was shooting looks of concern over at the girl, as were Dr Marbles. "Are you okay, Nezzie?"  
  
"Of course I'm not!" Inez snapped, raising her head to look at him. She didn't bother to remind him to not call her Nezzie. "Have you looked at that photo properly?" Matt shook his head and took the picture from Jackie's hand, studying it closer. "There's nothing there, Inez!"  
  
The Latino pressed a brown finger to a point on the photo. "Look there." The entire group, excluding Inez, all leaned in for a closer look.  
  
The object of Inez's anxiety was only just visible behind Delete's head; it looked like a picture of something. Matt choked as he realized what it was. "It's a framed picture of you!?" he squawked, sounding very much like a sick parrot. "I know this isn't exactly the time to laugh, but...really, Inez!"  
  
Inez glared at him. "It's not funny," she replied. "If you don't stop laughing, I'll really give you something to laugh about." Matt, at her threatening tone, then straightened up and tried to arrange his face into one of concern. "Sorry." Inez gave him one more glare, then returned her gaze to the picture. "It's not only the fact that Delete had a picture of me, but look what's written on it."  
  
The rest of them all squinted at the photo. At last, Jackie said, "I can't see anything." Inez looked questioningly at Matt, Digit and Dr Marbles, and got the same answer. "But – look –"She pointed to the words, which she could clearly see, that were written in untidy script in the corner of her portrait. Dr Marbles looked concerned for her health. "Inez," he said gently, leading her away from the table, "maybe you should lie down for a while."  
  
"I do not need to lie down for a while," Inez snapped, snatching her hand away from his. Then her face softened. "Sorry, Doc," she said, a little more calmly. "It's just the shock of Delete having a picture of me. There's only one thing that could mean." Her expression was not one of discomfort at the thought, but thoughtfulness. "I think you know what I'm talking about." She held a meaningful look with the Doc.  
  
"Anyway," the Latino stated, her common sense returning. "The only way I can prove this to you is if we go there ourselves." She paused. "Can you get Motherboard to generate a portal to the northern Frontier?" Dr Marbles began to object, but Inez reached up to grab his shoulders and looked deep into his eyes.  
  
"I need you to trust me on this one," she said softly. "Please?" There was a quiver in the nine-year-old's tone that hadn't been there before. There was a moment of silence, then Dr Marbles nodded. "Okay," he replied.  
  
Inez thought for a moment. "Will the police let us through?" she asked. "That's very important." Dr Marbles shook his head. "They shouldn't even be there by now," he answered. "All they have done is give the three a hasty burial, and that's all." When the girl looked puzzled, he explained, "Since Hacker, Buzz and Delete have been such a nuisance over the years, the police won't be interested in finding out who murdered them."  
  
The Latino nodded. "I'll get the others, and we'll go." Dr Marbles agreed, and walked off to generate a portal.  
  
***  
  
Within fifteen minutes, they were standing outside the Grim Wreaker. A sign, stuck hastily into the soil, read in a hardly legible scrawl, 'All items excluding the Grim Wreaker are free.' Jackie snorted. "The police would do well to have a ship like that in the force," she said. Matt rolled his eyes, but refrained from answering, while Inez strode up the ramp and into the ship, not bothering to wait for her friends.  
  
Matt looked up, just as he saw the girl disappear inside the monstrous construction. "Hey, wait -!" He ran up after her, with Jackie and Digit following not far behind. "You know, I think she's become more self- assertive," he commented over his shoulder as he entered the ship himself.  
  
"I heard that!" Inez yelled back, as she slowed down fractionally for them. Matt snorted, then ceased his run and walked normally beside her, with Jackie and Digit doing the same. "So. Where are we going?"  
  
Inez rolled her eyes. "I thought that would be obvious." She turned right, into the main control room, and halted. "Wow, those guys sure made a mess in here." The sight that had met Hacker's gaze was undisturbed; walking over to the shattered cup and poking the shards with a finger, Jackie wrinkled her nose at the papers strewn on the floor. Digit slipped on a grey folder as he picked his way through the debris, and landed on his behind with a THUMP. "Ouch..." he murmured under his breath, rubbing the affected area as he pushed himself upright again.  
  
"You hurt, Didge?" Matt asked the cyboid, pausing in his navigation of the room to stare at him. Digit shook his head. "Nope. Only my dignity, is all..." He flew to the doorway opposite, peering into the hallway. "I think we go this way..." The kids all stopped their search and went to join the cyboid.  
  
"It looks a bit...scary down there," Jackie whispered. Matt tried not to laugh at this sudden show of fear, and stepped out into the hallway, but stopped and scowled a few feet from the doorway. "What the-?"  
  
Inez looked puzzled. "What's up?" The red-haired boy pointed to the floor in front of him, which was covered in newspaper clippings. "Look." He picked a couple up and looked through them. "They're all of us..." Jackie and Digit gulped; Inez frowned and looked over Matt's shoulder. "Oh – oh my God..." She jabbed a finger at one of them. A circle had been drawn around Digit's face; in fact, this had been done in every picture. "Whoever murdered Hacker, Buzz and Delete must have dropped these..."  
  
Jackie had gone white. "He's next..." she whispered. "Digit is the next one on the list..." 


End file.
